You must be a current TCBCC organizational member and support the mandate of the TCBCC – a network of non-profit child care programs working towards a system of high quality, regulated, accessible, affordable not-for-profit child care in Toronto

Become eligible to apply for Our Community Build Grant for Toys & Equipment up to *$500 per year, (first come first served as funds allow)

The Toronto Coalition for Better Child Care is a strong Voice for Child Care in Toronto, and has been leading the struggle for the community at the City level for almost 30 years. Our members and board members were actively engaged in advocacy at the city and provincial levels and this past year our voices were heard.

Budget going to council will match 20% of new provincial, federal funds over 3 years, Gary Crawford says

Toronto Budget Chief Gary Crawford says the city will make good on its promise to match a portion of new provincial and federal funding for child care.

“The bottom line is we are living up to our commitment,” Crawford told CBC Toronto on Monday.

Crawford said the city’s budget committee will recommend on Tuesday, as part of the city’s final 2018 budget, that council commit $11 million over three years to child care. The recommendation will be made to Mayor John Tory’s executive committee. Council is scheduled to consider the budget on Feb. 12 and 13.

The TDSB has been relying on school-based child care and recreation programs to provide after-hours care for children from kindergarten to Grade 6.

But a staff report, to be debated by a board committee Wednesday, says many child-care programs are unable to meet demand because they don’t have enough space and can’t find enough early-childhood educators willing to work split shifts. About 23 per cent of schools offer no before- and after-school care, the report adds.

Toronto mother Dawn Barclay, seen here in a June 2017 file photo, has been unable to find after-school child care for her daughter Layla who started junior kindergarten last fall. (CARLOS OSORIO / TORONTO STAR)